2009 VSA arts of Wisconsin Awards Ceremony
Saturday March 21, 2009

Emcee: Carleen Wild, NBC 15 anchor/reporter

See photos from the ceremony. A total of 26 Wisconsin children and adult artists with disabilities were recognized for their outstanding works of art at the 2009 VSA arts of Wisconsin Awards Ceremony March 21 at WPS Health Insurance in Madison. Honorees included five adult and five children's purchase award recipients and five adult and five children's honorable mention recipients, selected from Wisconsin artists with disabilities submitting work to the annual VSA Call for Art. An additional three adults and three children were honored for Special Recognition Awards and one adult and one child each receive da Viewers Choice Award, selected by viewers of the Call for Art Exhibition.
VSA arts of Wisconsin Young Soloist Award recipient Beth Allred (pictured right), sang two selections at the ceremony.
State Senator Jon Erpenbach (above left photo, right) and U.S. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin attended the ceremony to help honor their constituents who were being recognized. Congresswoman Baldwin spoke, telling the artists "never stop creating."
"One thing I love about art is there's no right or wrong pieces of art," said Baldwin, "unlike some of the other endeavors where there's a right answer or a wrong answer. It is always about a personal expression of how you see, hear or feel or dream about the world around you, and that means that art is for everyone."
Artist Lucy Taylor told the audience that her first involvement with art is also her first memory. She shared that as a child, she often had to stay home from school. She said that art has always been "a means of learning; it was an exploration into myself and really a primary language ... a journey into myself to be able to articulate things that I would not be able to say otherwise, verbally."

See more photos from the ceremony.

Click the name of each artwork below to view an image.

Adult- Purchase Award Selections

Tia Yang, Sheboygan - Tia's 3-D Drawing
Randy Sands, Madison - A Walk through Nature
Gary Lynch, Madison - State Capitol at Night
Rosella Ballerini, Whitewater - The Secret Room
Chris Herrling, Mazomanie - The Hulk

Adult- Honorable Mention Selections

Mary Lallensack, Sheboygan - Light & Darker
Steve Feerick, West Allis - Untitled
Lucy Taylor, Madison - Untitled
Romano Johnson, Madison - Good Man
Seth Albertson, Madison - Pedestrian Stop Light

Adult- Recognition Awards

Joyce Gust, Winneconne - Spirit Rocks
Phil Jung, Cedarburg - Pot of Gold
Travis Gunther, Wausau - Beautiful Day

Adult Viewers Choice Award
Lucy Taylor, Madison - Moonrise Meditation

Childrens- Purchase Award Selections

Demone White, Maple Grove Elementary, Milwaukee - Red Eyes
Josh Stankey, Logan Middle School, LaCrosse - Birch Trees
Andrew Brooks, Willow River Elementary, Hudson - The City
Alexander Kristl, Shorewood Intermediate School, Whitefish Bay - Untitled Cubist Portrait
Jacob Martin, West Salem Elementary, West Salem - Person

Childrens- Honorable Mention

Mickellia Piepenhagen, Wisconsin Heights Middle School, Mazomanie - Tazmanian Tiger
Bradley Statz, Deforest Middle School, Deforest - Mola
Chris Freeman, Logan Middle School, LaCrosse - Water Numbers
Giovanni Cevantes, Gaenslen School-MPS, Milwaukee - I Am Happy
Ilona LuConreras, Badger Ridge Middle School, Fitchburg - Mysterious Luna (also received Viewers Choice Award)

Childrens- Recognition Award
Choua Yang, Logan Middle School, LaCrosse - Patterns
Gina Giacobassi, Shorewood Intermediate School, Shorewood - Robots
Max Maertz, Kewaskum Middle School, Kewaskum - Acorn

The five children's pieces and five adult award pieces selected to receive purchase awards will be added to VSA's Children and Adult Traveling Exhibitions for display throughout the state at corporations, libraries, museums and galleries.

Each adult whose artwork was chosen for a purchase award received $400; adult honorable mention recipients received $100. The children’s award recipients (ages 5-15) were each given $100 gift certificates for art supplies; children's honorable mention recipients received $50 gift certificates.